Lately coffee has been making me very sick too. After just a sip I get nauseaus and then if I drink a few sips more I get a bad case of vertigo. Needless to say I avoid it now that I’ve discovered the source of my vertigo attacks. Have you ever heard of this? I have lots of food intolerances (wheat, oats, rye, barley, malt, yeast, soy) that usually cause me to have extreme fatigue, congestion, sore throat and overall sick feeling.
Dear Andrea, Nausea and bad vertigo with coffee is very unusual, especially as it is not like your usual reaction to other foods you react to, except that having an “overall sick feeling” can include nausea. I hear of many unusual reactions. Yours is real too. It is worth thinking about all the parts of the coffee reaction. Is it the strong smell you experience as you bring the coffee near your nose. Smells go directly to the brain. We would not be surprised if anyone had nausea if they smelled food that had become putrid. Are you someone who notices food going off? Do you have your reaction when walking past a coffee shop with the strong aroma in the air? Or to be even more a food sensitive person, does it depend on the quality of the coffee smell? When you have the sip your tongue and nasal cavity respond to the flavour, which is a combination of the taste and smell, which also has a quick pathway to the brain. Then we can ask if you are exquisitely sensitive to the caffeine, perhaps affecting your blood pressure. If you like coffee you could try a decaf trial, very carefully, in case you are able to enjoy coffee that way. Diet detective work is fascinating. There is much we do not know about what we call the pharmacology of what happens when someone very sensitive reacts. I presume you have read the article on Chronic Fatigue https://foodintolerancepro.com/chronic-fatigue-food-sensitivity/ so you know others react to food additives and other food chemicals, particularly smells. Following that up could mean you may not have such severe reactions to your problem foods. Thank you for your comment. It will help others feel supported by you being prepared to report on an unusual reaction. I wish you well with your diet investigation.
These symptoms sounds very much like they could be from candida/yeast overgrowth. I’m going through something similar at the moment which I believe is at the root of my compromised gut health, resulting is histamine intolerance (and other intolerances). Might be worth looking into. All the best.
Hi Jo, You do need to have any tests your doctor thinks are necessary, and treat candida if it is found. If diet is part of this do have a “detective” approach where you decrease what you suspect for four weeks and then test each part of your exclusions. you can check out the article on What diet should you begin with https://foodintolerancepro.com/elimination-diet-with/ and use my books to help. Are You Food Sensitive? helps take you through the whole investigation process making it fit you personally. Or you could use Tolerating troublesome Foods for all the little tricks to testing foods so you don’t react to the histamines. I wish you well. Joan